Masculine Sympathy Card

Hello, Crafters.

Today’s card is the sympathy card I told you about yesterday. It was requested by hubby for a colleaque whose father has just passed away. Normally I choose a single flower for a sympathy card, but as this card was for a man who’s lost his father, I wanted something more masculine. When I first decied on my design, I was going to use the row of five trees in the Winter Woods Stamp Set.

To start my card, I took a top layer of Whisper White Cardstock (CS) and also a piece of retired Tranquil Tide CS that was the same size. Using one of the straight cut oval dies from the Layering Oval Dies and the Tranquil Tide CS, I die-cut the oval where I wanted it to be on my sympathy card. Next I used some Washi Tape to adhere my oval template to the Whisper White CS layer.

For my first attempt, I used Soft Sea Foam Ink and a Dauber, and sponged inside the oval continuously until I’d covered the entire area. When I removed the oval template, I wasn’t sure that green was the right colour to use for a sympathy card, but I decided to carry on anyway. I put the stamp on my block and used tape to cover up some of the tree trunks because the trees were too tall.

Once I’d inked the the stamp with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, I removed the tape, and discarded it. For the first impression, I stamped onto a scrap of paper so I could see how tall the trees were. I’d guessed it perfectly, so I taped up the stamp again, re-inked, removed the tape and stamp in the centre of the oval.  I disliked it immediately! I felt the trees looked so spidery!

Back to the drawing board! I took another Whisper White CS top layer and adhered the template in place using Washi Tape. At least this allowed me a chance to change the colour! I decided to go for the lightest brown, i.e. Sahara Sand. I went through the same process with a new Dauber until I achieved a good colour, even though it looks more like Crumb Cake.

I was happy that the brown was a much better colour for a sympathy card. I took a piece of Sahara Sand CS for the layer under the Whisper White CS, but it didn’t match my sponging. I checked it against a piece of Crumb Cake CS and it matched brilliantly. The lesson here is to be careful how much daubing you do, because if you do too much, it can change the colour!

After checking through my other stamp sets for a more suitable group of trees, I decided to use the retired Lovely as a Tree Stamp Set! I stamped the image as it was and it worked beautifully.  I decided not to do anything extra to my top layer, apart from stamping WITH SYMPATHY in the bottom right hand corner. The sentiment is Flourishing Phrases Stamp Set.

I took another top layer of Whisper White CS for the inside of the card and stamped the first two trees on the left-hand side of the stamp in the bottom right-hand side of the cardstock. Next I adhered this layer to a layer of Crumb Cake CS, and then inside the card. The last photograph shown here today shows the Soft Sea Foam oval together with the trees from the Winter Woods Stamp Set. I’ll be interested to know what you think of the green and also of the spidery trees!

That’s it from me today. I hope you have a super weekend, and I look forward to being back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, Happy crafting.

JanB. xx

Products used for this project: please click on any link to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop. December 2019 Hostess Code is RVWA74X3 Thank you. xx